For a time there was silence, dust and little rocks still fell from above like rain. Then it stopped. Eventually coughing could be heard.
"Raph…Mike..S…Sensei?" Leonardo pulled himself from under a pillar and coughed loudly trying to rub the dust from his eyes, with an equally dusty hand. He coughed again and stumbled around searching.
"Raphael, Michalangelo, Sensei!" Leo called again.
There was another groan and Leo quickly turned towards the sound. " Raphael?"
Another groan again, and Leo moved towards the sound. Not far away he found his red masked brother trapped under a small pile of rubble, one of his arms and his head was free but the rest was trapped under concrete.
"Leo?" Raph asked blinking up at his brother.
"Hang on Raph I'm going to get you out of there." Leo began to move the pieces of concrete aside until he finally managed to get Raph free. Leo helped his brother to his feet, letting Raph lean on him so he wouldn't fall.
"Are you okay?" Leo asked looking concerned.
Raph clutched his left arm to his plastron and grimaced. " Think my arm's busted, hurts like hell."
Leo frowned worriedly. " Try not to move it until we can find something to bind it."
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry Leo I'm fine. Where are Mike, Donnie and Sensei?" Raph said waving off his brother's concern.
" I don't know I just now found you, I want you stay right here and rest while I go look for them.."
Raph gave his brother a glare. "Not a chance Leo, so don't even think about it."
"But Raph.."Leo started his frown deepening.
"Stuff it Leo I'm helping ya search, got it?"
Leo sighed and gave up. "All right but take it easy with your arm."
"Fine, fine, lets stop yakin and start searchin." Raph stepped past his brother and
began to walk the length of the room crawling over rubble and calling out his brother's names.
"Mikey, hey Mikey where are ya!"
"Sensei, Donnie, Sensei!"
Raph finally heard a weak voice calling and followed it to a large pile of rubble and girders at the back of the building. "Hey Leo, I hear somethin' over here!"
Leo hurried over to Raph's side and there could finally hear Mike's weak voice calling to them.
" Mikey! Sensei!" Leo called loudly pulling rubble aside. Raph chipped in with his free arm, but soon had to stop because the pieces soon grew too large for him to handle with one hand.
They heard Mike's voice again and as Leo dug it became clearer. He was coughing heavily. " Leo, Raph.." He called between coughs.
" Mikey we're here! Are you okay?" Leo called trying to dig faster.
" Yeah, Leo, Sensei's got a hurt let and my head hurts something awful but we're okay." Mike said.
" What about Donnie, is Donnie there?" Raph called in a voice full of worry.
"He's stuck, I..I can't get him out." Mike returned.
Leo pulled as hard as he could at a large chunk of concrete and finally with a loud groan it fell away rolling a short way down the pile to hit the ground with a thunk. In its place was now a large hole, big enough for a turtle to crawl through.
Leo crawled up to the hole to stick his head in and Raph scrambled up to do the same. They could see that the girders had miraculously formed a cave like area above Mike, Splinter and Don protecting them from the heaviest of the rubble. Some had gotten through however and virtually buried the unconscious Dark Turtle. Mike and Splinter were knelt beside him trying to get everything off of him. There was a dark spot on Mike's head a blood was running down the side of his face, Splinter's leg was also bleeding but he didn't seem to notice it, his concentration was on Don.
"Hold on I'm coming in there to help you." Leo said clamoring in the hole.
Mike looked up as his older brother slipped through and landed face first on the ground, he wiped the blood away from his face with a hand and gave Leo a weak smile.
"Looks like somebody up there's looking out for us."
"I don't know about that but you guys are certainly lucky to be alive." Leo knelt beside his father and placed a hand on the elderly rat's shoulder.
"Are you okay Sensei?"
Splinter looked up, and nodded. " I am fine my son, my leg is not broken."
"I'll help you get Don free and we can all get out of here, Mike I want you to help Sensei through the hole and crawl through, then I need you to be ready to take Don when I pass him through. Raph's hurt his arm, he won't be able to help."
Mike nodded, a slightly dazed look on his face. He, Leo and Splinter together managed to get Dark Turtle/Don free, and they examined him for injuries. Happily his suit seemed to have protected him from the impact of the rubble. Directed by Leo, Mike first helped Splinter through and then he and Leo carefully got Don through. Leo clamored out last and together they all carried their unconscious brother down the pile to the ground where they laid him flat.
There they collapsed to the ground in unison, panting with exhaustion. For a time no one said a thing; they were injured, dazed and amazed at the fact that they were all still alive. Only Leo had escaped injury, and after a few moments rest he was compelled to get back up and begin searching for a way out. While the blue masked turtle searched, Splinter used pieces of his ragged Kimono and Raph's own belt to bind Raph's arm and keep it in place. He did what he could to stanch the blood coming from Mike's head wound, and bound his own leg up using just about every inch of his Kimono.
"I can do no more now, we shall have to wait until we find a way out of here, then I will be able to treat your wounds properly." Splinter sighed settling down beside Donatello and placing his hands on his son's forehead.
"My son." He whispered to Don. "Come back to us, we have need of you."
Raph settled down cross legged next to Don and Mike followed suit.
" Seems like we're back where we were the first time Donnie got hurt. Waitin' and worryin. This day has turned out ta stuck the big one." Raph groused resting the elbow of his free arm on his leg and placing his palm under his chin.
" Think he's okay Sensei?" Mike asked fearfully.
" I do not know my son." Splinter said shaking his head. " I do not know."
" Man we gotta do something.. we can just sit here and let Donnie die while that stupid metal jerk flies around the city destroying everything." Mike punched the ground.
"Don't worry guys, I found a way out of here." Came Leo's voice from behind them.
He slid down from a pile of rubble and landed next to Mike. "My shell cell wasn't damaged, so I used it to call April. She and Casey will be meeting us outside."
Leo knelt and put a hand on Mike's shoulder. " We're going to get out of here."
Mike looked up hopefully and smiled.
"About time, this place feels like a friggin tomb." Raph said pulling himself shakily to his feet.
" Mike, you feel up to helping me carry Donnie out of here?" Leo asked his orange masked brother.
Mike nodded. " No problem Leo."
Leo turned to Raph. " Raph you help Sensei, there's some rough places along the way but if you're careful you should be okay. Just follow my lead."
Since he was the one with the most strength at the moment Leonardo grabbed Don's head and Mike took Don's feet. Slowly they made their way across the space of the building's rubble covered floor, crawling over piles of concrete, steel and stone, dodging under fallen girders; avoiding anything that looked unstable. As careful as they were though they couldn't avoid a few minor accidents; Raph and Splinter almost got caught in a rockslide of rubble and Leo got a nasty gash across the side of his face while trying to hoist Don's unconscious body over a series of fallen girders. Finally they made it to the wall, where a large crack had formed in the wall leaving them plenty of room to get out.
Leo looked up at the wall and frowned. " I think it's time we got out of here, this building doesn't look too stable anymore, it could completely collapse at any time."
"Yes we have been extremely fortuitous so far, let us not test our luck any further." Splinter agreed.
" I second that." Mike said with a grimace, and the way he was wincing it was obvious he had a bad headache.
Leo slowly backed out of the hole in the wall and stepped out onto the street, the others followed suit. Outside they could see it was still dark, but not for long the sun would be coming up soon..and they could hear the wail of police sirens in the distance.
"Damn, cops we need ta get out of here." Raph said ducking into the shadows after his brothers.
"April should be here…" Leo started looking around for their friend.
Sure enough April and Casey came running from a van across the street.
"Oh my god, guys are you all right!" April asked seeing her friend's injuries.
"We'll be okay, we just need somewhere were we can rest and Splinter can treat our injuries." Leo said bending and resting Don on the ground shell first, Mike followed suit but as soon as he got near the ground he lost his balance and plopped down on his bottom heavily.
"You okay bro?" Casey asked kneeling beside Mike.
"Everything's kinda spinning." Mike said dazedly putting a hand to his head.
Raph helped Splinter to kneel beside Mike, the elderly rat placed a hand on his son's head and looked into his eyes. "He is exhausted, he needs rest." He said with a sigh.
"Come on, we'll get you guys in the van and get you back to my apartment. You can rest there for as long as you like." April knelt beside Don and took his pulse.
"His pulse is really weak Leo, what happened up there?" She said looking up at Leonardo with fear in her eyes.
Leo looked upwards to the roof on where they had fought the metal foot, and lost.. then he looked back down at Donatello.
"It's a long story April, I'll tell you everything later." He said his face dark.
April nodded. "Come on then, let's get you into the van."
Casey helped Mike up and helped him cross the road to the van, Raph helped Splinter and though April offered to help Leo, the blue masked turtle insisted on carrying Donatello himself. When they reached the van Leo laid Don as gently as he could in the back and sat down beside him…where he laid his head back against the walls of the van..and almost instantly fell asleep out of exhaustion.
Raph and the others followed suit a few moments later.
From the front seat April and Casey looked back at their friends exchanged worried glances.